Xbox Live is officially dead, in name if nothing else. After many rumblings, Xbox is rebranding its online service as Xbox network as part of a move to help distinguish all of the various services that have been coming to the platform over the past few years.
When Xbox Live began, it was simply a place to play games with friends and access some supplementary services like Netflix. Over time, it has grown and expanded to encompass numerous other ideas such as Xbox Game Pass, a wildly successful secondary subscription service. Last year, it began to seem like Microsoft would be rebranding and possibly even folding Xbox Live Gold into Game Pass, to create a unified service. Now, that has in fact happened, at least to some extent.
Speaking to The Verge, a Microsoft spokesperson indicated that Xbox Live will be rebranded to Xbox network, but it seems like that will only be used as a naming convention. At the time of this writing, Xbox doesn't seem to be making any other significant changes, but that might not last. “’Xbox network’ refers to the underlying Xbox online service, which was updated in the Microsoft Services Agreement,” says a Microsoft spokesperson. “The update from ‘Xbox Live’ to ‘Xbox network’ is intended to distinguish the underlying service from Xbox Live Gold memberships.”
Ironically, Microsoft actually tried to drastically increase the price for Xbox Live Gold earlier this year. This backfired dramatically and caused an almost instant reversal. If there was a plan to make the service free or roll it into Game Pass, at any point, it seems unlikely that Microsoft would've gone out of its way to do something so drastic in the complete opposite direction. Whether or not there are other plans for deepening the idea of the Xbox network is unclear, but it bears contemplation, especially since the change has apparently been so long coming.
Last year, Xbox implemented free cloud saves, which fans can use regardless of whether or not they're subscribed to Xbox Live Gold. It's not hard to imagine that there will be more done to try and flesh the service out. With suggestions of a March Xbox event, which won't feature any big game announcements according to Xbox's Aaron Greenberg, it seems likely that maybe the company is planning to announce new plans for the service, though at this point nothing is confirmed.
Source: The Verge